Update to a Struggling Container

 Hi all!  I feel like I have been apologizing all summer for being absent from my friends and from my blogging world.  I am sorry. It has been an emotionally draining summer for me due to life challenges that have hit my family and me.  Because of these challenges I have been zapped of energy and creativity but I am working toward getting back on track soon.

Today I am offering a follow-up to my last post which was published almost a month ago now. I want to tell you about the journey I have had with this poor container below.  In my last post I think I said in order to restore this planter I would purchase new plants to fill in the gaps that are shown below.  The original plants were either damaged by environmental conditions or died completely. I did purchase and plant some flowers after formerly posting the original story. Things were looking pretty good in the week or two that followed.  Then, I went on vacation to our cottage on Cape Cod with said container in tow.  Unfortunately, on the drive to the Cape I had to stomp on the brakes of my car and this planter went flying all over the back of the car.  I was following my husband who was driving our other car. The person in front of him slammed on his brakes causing a chain reaction. Thankfully, no accidents occurred, and everyone was fine. My container was not, however, it turned out.  So.....

the next day after a late evening arrival I went to the nearest nursery and picked up a new plant to fill in the disaster that was now my planter.  I had replanted the disheveled flowers remaining as best I could.  Some were not salvageable. The plants I could save were not in great shape at all but I hoped anyway.

The large plant you see here was much smaller when I bought it but for once, the begonias really started to thrive while I vacationed on Cape Cod.

I don't have a photo of this but, I placed the reconditioned container on a bench under a tree allowing for dappled light to shine on the plants.  The weather was hot and sticky for the week+ that we were there, and this planter seemed to love it!!

Somehow the container made it home unscathed in the car.  My husband added extra care to the packing of it this time around. No reason to think I wouldn't need to slam on my brakes again.  We were going through Boston and that is always a possibility :).

Anyway, I was looking at the container today and I thought, "It looks pretty good!  Maybe I will share my final success on the blog."  The bedraggled begonias I replanted have slowly, very slowly, regrown some new growth.  The plant I purchased on the Cape has really done well.  The alyssum I put in the planter in June is finally blooming. I am not sure why that had to take so long to bloom but, I am happy to finally find pretty flowers showing themselves.

I cannot remember what this ↓plant is called. I think it begins with an E but I am not sure.  Maybe I will check with the nursery down the street the next time I visit.  It has started to rebloom, as well.

Do you see the rounder pink blossom in the middle of the top of the planter?  That is a bloom that finally came from one of the bedraggled, replanted begonias. I am hoping against hope that this container will give me consistent joy for the rest of the summer season.  We will see.  We are planning another trip to Cape Cod soon.  Haha!

I can always hope, right :)?